NeNe Leakes, Cynthia Bailey and Phaedra Parks' Husbands Dish on Their Marriages To The Real Housewives of Atlanta

February 17, 2014 11:00AM

We feel like we know everything there is to know about the Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s relationships—but not from the husbands’ side! OK! got NeNe Leakes‘ husband Gregg, Cynthia Bailey‘s husband Peter and Phaedra Parks‘ husband Apollo to tell all about their ladies, like how second time’s a charm for NeNe and Gregg, what Cynthia and Peter’s sex life is like, and how Phaedra and Apollo are getting through that whole Kenya Moore incident. Read below for all the exclusive details:

NeNe Leakes: The outspoken mama hen of the Atlanta Housewives, NeNe wears the pants in most of her relationships; her marriage with Gregg—whom she wed for the second time in a lavish soiree last summer—is no exception. “She’s a free spirit,” Gregg tells OK!. “Sometimes I want to say, ‘Don’t do this,’ or ‘Did you really say that?’ But I have to step back and let her do her thing.” NeNe recently suffered a blood clot in her lungs, which was “the only thing that slowed her down,” Gregg says. Though The New Normal (NeNe played a sassy assistant) was canceled last year, Gregg says there’s no slowing her down. She has “so many projects yet to be announced.” While NeNe grows her empire, Gregg often stays home with their sons, “so we can have some man time.” When he does travel with NeNe, he’s learned that he has to share her with fans. Says Gregg, “I can’t eat a doughnut with my wife without people coming up to the table!”

Cynthia Bailey: After heated conflicts over money, business, and er, the bedroom, strong-willed restaurateur Peter Thomas and his former-model wife Cynthia Bailey are on a new, more cohesive track. “We got married when she was 40 and I was 49,” Peter says, “and when you get together that late, individuals are really set in their ways and there’s lots of compromising to do.” He admits concessions didn’t come naturally when Cynthia was dealing with uterine fibroids, which sapped her energy and sex drive. “I was on the sideline, waiting to get my wife back,” Peter says, “and I was irritable all the time.” Today, the couple is reconnecting: During a recent Vegas getaway, “we ended up spending almost two full days in the room and not coming out at all,” Peter brags.

Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Cirque du Soleil

Phaedra Parks: Phaedra and her husband, Apollo Nida, experienced no shortage of conflict after Apollo admitted to having a questionable text conversation with Phaedra’s rival and fellow Housewife, Kenya Moore. The fallout is ongoing, Apollo tells OK!. “It’s re-enacted every day,” he says. “Every time I see a commercial about it, or even going further back, to when I tossed Kenya in the pool in Anguilla, I still get it. So it’s tough.” However, he and Phaedra try to live in the present, no matter how many reruns Bravo airs. “You have to let things go,” he says. “Once I apologized, we were trying to move forward. We have two young men to raise.”

Apollo’s juicy past (he was jailed for half a decade for racketeering before marrying Phaedra, a lawyer) has made him a natural draw for reality TV—and haters. “Everyone’s judgmental, when they really don’t see much of your life at all,” he says. “That can cause your relationship to go awry, when you believe what everyone’s saying. But me and Phaedra, we’re still here.”